SNOW

Last Tuesday, February 27, 2012, it snowed in Espoo ALL day.  ALL DAY!  A beautiful, peaceful,  morning till night snow.  The next morning I was looking out our window.  There was a child, 9 -11 age group,  walking on the 'path' that had been there the day before.  It's a path on the side of our building.  He was really struggling.....one foot in....sinks a foot or so.....lift out and other foot sinks in.  He made it to the bridge and across.  No better on the other side.  Takes a few labored steps and then falls forward on his knees and starts to crawl!  He crawled all the way to the path that meets this one.  Pulling his bag and just crawled and did much better on his knees than he had done on his feet!  It's a fair distance to crawl.  The other path is out where the tower is and trees along it.  Then he rose up, turned left and continued on his way, walking like nothing had happened,  on a better traveled path!  so funny to watch. 

The little bridge is on the left where the boy started crawling and he went out to where the electrical tower is.

This picture is of the snow plow the church bought!  The temple missionaries (MEN) would give anything to drive it.  The driver is a member from Estonia, hired by the church to know what he is doing.  

  This is our parking lot he is clearing out from the last snow day.  Notice the blue parking sign in the snow.  

Here is the snow on the way to the main doors where we live. 

The Temple

Way up North

The trip north brought some 'fun' roads!   This is in Rovaniemi.  We stayed in what amounted to a youth hostel, (a lot of youth from France were there)  down on the right where the 2 big trucks are parked.  It was such beautiful winter weather.  You really were glad you had 'long johns' on.   We visited Santa's Village, several times.  We went back and then back to buy more postcards and Santa stamps etc etc.  Took our pictures on the Arctic Circle and saw the reindeer.  What more do you want?? 

We ate at the world's most northern McDONALDS!!!  wahoo! 

 

 We left Rovaniemi and went to Sweden!  Just over the border.  But we enjoyed our Swedish vacation.  No stamp in our passport because it also is an EU country.  We got out at the round about in the middle of town and took pictures of the 3 ice sculptures there.  Wayne talked to a woman going by on her kick sled.  (There is a picture of Grandmother Mae Johnson on her kick sled in the family histories)   We saw some children in Rovaniemi using them to go to school.  

 On to the Snow Castle.   COLD.  That's the word that totally fits.  VERY COLD.  A 'fine dining' area with ice tables and a sheet of plastic for the table top.  The stools were tree trunks covered with fur.  The bedrooms all had ice beds covered in fur.    The place is booked up all the time.  A fun place but VERY  COLD

That night we stayed in Oulu.  We all participated in a Temple Fireside.  The Fuller's spoke and the rest of us introduced ourselves and spoke a few words about the temple.  It is amazing to visit these branches and recognize a few people everywhere you go as members you have visited with in the temple.  Love it.  

The next day we drove to Seinäjoki.  We stopped in Larsmo/Pietarsaari on the way!!  This is where my Grandfather Johnson designed and built the 1st chapel in Finland!  It is now a private home.  We took pictures and the owner came out and wanted to know what Americans were doing there.  Wayne told him and he went to his garage and showed the original church sign he had found inside the house when he bought it.  It was very awesome to see this bit of family and church history.

Later when we went to the current church building there were the pulpit and pump organ original to the Larsmo chapel!!  My grandfather was height impaired so that pulpit probably fit very well.  There were a lot of words spoken from that piece of wood.  (They were in the classroom area). 

 The Branch President, Leif Back, met us and took us to the spot where Finland had been dedicated by Ezra T. Benson, in 1946, for teaching the Gospel.  It wasn't just a walk through the forest and up a small incline.  Pres. Back went earlier and stomped a narrow trail for us...then he even had boots in his car for everyone!!  There is a plaque but we will have to go back when there is no snow to read the words.   It was so interesting to be there.  The reason that spot was chosen is because it was the highest spot in the area.  There are many Swedish people in this area of Finland so at this Branch everything is done in Swedish and Finnish.  Even the name on the building is in both languages.  Swedish is an official second language in Finland.  All street signs, throughout the country, are in Finnish and then underneath in Swedish.  The Johnson ancestors are from this area...can't wait to go back in the months with no snow and visit some cemeteries and city registers.  

 We did another  temple fireside and renewed some acquaintances and made new ones.  This branch president invited the press to the fireside.  The reporter who came was more interested in Mitt Romney than the temple.  But we weren't.  Had a very nice time.  The video made for the temple open house in 2006 was shown at both firesides.  Grandmother and Grandfather Johnson were even in the video in a picture taken of the first missionary group in Finland!  (It also is in the Johnson histories!) 

This branch  rents a building that used to be a bank.  It has a sauna (which everyone was quick to point out is only used for a storage room) and the most amazing room, in all of the world wide church, for the LIBRARY!!   The VAULT!!! hahaha Now it is not just a key but a combination.  So funny. 

 This picture is of Hämeenlinna Castle.  It was begun in the 13th and 14th centuries as a Swedish forttress.  It was most recently used as a women's prison.  Currently it is a park and tourist site.   There is also a military museum there which houses canons from several wars.

 

This the beautiful Tampere Finland Orthodox Russian Church.  We could not go inside because there was a funeral in progress.

We had a great 

  time on our 6 day trip with 8 people in a 9 passenger van!  

From this picture you can see that we are entering the sunset of our lives.

Sunset at 4:46 p.m.  

Rovaniemi, Finland

Stockmann

Stockmann's is the main department store in downtown Helsinki.  The goods are nice, but the prices are usually very high.  The pricing structure did not seem to bother the Russians.  The place was packed with bargain hunters.

Russians at Helsinki market (tori) square.

It was cold, but the weather did not stop all these Russians from trying to find a deal at the market (tori).  January 7 is the Eastern Orthodox day of Christmas. 

Wayne's first transfer!

The harsh surroundings matched my feelings as I watched him walk off.  (Ha! Ha! Now I can do my Sudoku without repeating the numbers first in Finnish!)

 

Christmas Eve in Espoo, Finland.

The blueberry smoothies.

Above is the assortment of fish.  Below is the ham and sauteed reindeer.

The temple missionaries were invited to  the home of Ilkka and Paula Aura to enjoy a true Finnish Christmas Eve celebration, there were nine of us.  We arrived at noon and soon thereafter started eating.  We began with Finnish rice porridge (riisi puuro).  This is prepared by cooking the rice in milk for about four to five hours, then eaten with either butter, cinnamon, sugar, cream, or fruit syrup or all put together.  Then we played games, sat around and talked.  Sauna was then offered.  All that wanted to go went.  The rest did some more talking and game playing.  After sauna was complete, the fresh salmon was place on the smoker and smoked.  While the salmon was smoking we all sang songs and shared memories of Finland long ago.  The climax was the Christmas story in Luke.  About six o'clock pm dinner was served and served and served.  We had a large variety of foods.  The fish included:  smoked salmon,  salmon, white fish, fried muikku (with eyes and heads still attached) and marinated muikku, heads removed, raw herring, cured reindeer, sauteed reindeer, fresh kinkku (ham), and fresh lingonberries (everything was thus far served cold).  The hot  foods were:  carrot casserole, rutabaga casserole, mashed potatoes, boiled Lapland potatoes, and an American green salad with avocados.  We drank water, fizzie water (carbonated water), mehu (fruit drink) and fresh frozen blueberry smoothies (without sugar).  Deserts were provided by missionaries so they were not so Finnish.  Raw apple cake, apple pudding with sauce, tapioca pudding, and some gluten free pasteries.  It took us a while to eat!  After dinner had settled we visited two graveyards, one in Espoo and one in Helsinki.  The Finns really honor their dead, especially war dead.  Candles are lit and placed on the graves.  It is a beautiful sight to behold to see a dark graveyard shimmering in the night.  The weather was normal for this time of year.  It was warmer here than in our home state of Utah.  It was rainy and dark outside, but really warm and fun inside.  We arrived back  home at 10:30 pm.  We were all tired out.  It was a very special Christmas Eve that will always be remembered because of two wonderful unselfish people, Ilkka and Paula Arua.  Thank you.

Table set for riisi puuroa. Rice porridge.

Game playing.

Our hosts, Ilkka and Paula Aura, in the kitchen.

Candles at the cemetery.

Old Espoo Lutheran Church, built 400 years ago.

Sauna, Finnish style!

This is the entrance to the sauna.  You enter through the shower room.

 

 

This is the sauna stove.  It is strategically placed in the corner of the sauna.  It is a wood burning stove, this makes the steam smell good.

Once inside the sauna you sit on these wooden benches, fortunately for us they were covered with towels to keep us from blistering our rears.  You either wrap a towel around you or go bare naked.  Finns go naked, so we all went bare a-- naked.  It was fun.  When the wood heats up it smells very good inside the sauna.  The sauna took two steps:  first you go in and sit down and sweat and sweat as someone throws water onto the rocks.  The first step lasted about 30 to 40 minutes.  We showered, went into a lounge area, sat down, drank water or pop and cooled down.  The last step was we reentered the sauna, threw more water on the rocks and really steamed up this time.  We didn't leave until all the water was gone from the sauna bucket.  We then reshowered, dressed  and rejoined the party upstairs.

Notice the little wooden bucket and wooden ladle.  Water is taken from the bucket and thrown onto the hot rocks on the sauna stove, this produces really hot steam.